Shock advertising campaigns, such as those launched in recent years against the addiction of alcohol, smoking or against anorexia, can have counterproductive and unexpected effects. This is the case of the latest initiative against childhood obesity launched by Strong4life, a movement created by the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, which last August released posters and videos showing fat and clumsy children struggling with extra pounds. All accompanied by alarmist captions, such as: "He may not survive his parents, or" Chubby is not nice if he has type 2 diabetes "and again" He has his father's eyes, his smile and probably his diabetes too ".
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerous
Le shock advertising campaigns, such as those launched in recent years against the addiction of alcohol, smoking or anorexia, can have counterproductive and unexpected effects. This is the case of the latest initiative against childhood obesity launched by Strong4life, a movement created by Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, which it released last August posters and videos in which appeared fat and clumsy children struggling with the extra pounds. All accompanied by alarmist captions, such as: "He may not survive his parents", or "Chubby is not nice if he has type 2 diabetes" and again "He has his father's eyes, his smile and probably his diabetes too" .
The intent was to raise awareness among Americans about problem of nutrition and obesity, given that many parents - despite having terribly overweight children - underestimate this and do not take initiatives to resolve it; in Georgia, for example, where the campaign began, the 75% of parents of obese children do not recognize the disease.
On the other hand, the impact of images is likely to produce the opposite effect, causing a real stigmatization of the obese, that once targeted they easily turn into targets for bullies and bullies, thus ghettoizing those affected by the disease.
They also intervened to highlight the thin veil between the awareness campaign and the counterproductive shock several industry experts - also taken from The Washington Post and from BBC - highlighting the risk of these particularly clear and strong campaigns.
Among these was also one of the officials of the National Institutes of Health, Alan Guttmacher, for whom the initiative “carries a strong risk of stigma” and “risks for the psychological health” of the little ones.
In short, all this noise could lead to the responsibility for obesity falling on the children who are affected by it, terribly worsening their psychological condition.
Once again, therefore, the communication and dissemination of a healthy diet is more necessary than ever, both for adults and for children. But to do all this it is necessary a planned, synergistic and continuous action, involving families, schools and institutions, and capable of making Americans take a leap forward. Because nutrition is also culture.
Verdiana Amorosi
